The Officer Purge
Introduction
After the landslide election of President Auguste Charbonnier, the political structures in France began to completely reorganize around the newly dominant Liberation Party. The power of the Conservatives and Liberals had been completely upended, and the newly formed opposition party could do little to stop the Liberation Party from enacting swift changes in French policy. Violence against politicians as well as pressure from the press had made it extremely unpopular for a public official to speak out against the revolutionary government, resulting in many politicians abandoning their principles to be folded into the Liberation party line. As the political situation grew more dire for the former Liberal and Conservative parties, the French military command remained a bulwark of Bonapartist support and fiercely resisted the reforms of the new government.
History
The Republic Protection Against Foreign Sedition Act
The tension between the Bonapartist command, and the new Liberation government boiled over with the passing of the Republic Protection Against Foreign Sedition(RPAFS) Act. The RPAFS Act established the Commissariat of the Revolution, an office of the President put in charge of scrutinizing internal officials, both military and civil, for foreign allegiances of any form. The RPAFS Act was originally intended to act as an anti-espionage measure, as many in France feared rampant foreign interference due to the popularity of the Eaglet conspiracy theory, which was popularized by the Les Lorrains. The Commissariat was meant to act merely as an investigatory body that would build a case against foreign agents and their accomplices acting against the interests of The New French Republic. As the zeal of the revolution grew, the role this newly established office would play changed dramatically.
As the Liberation Party had virtually no obstacles in the legislative branch, they passed the RPAFS Act on June 23rd. The Office of the Commissariat was scheduled to start operations on July 2nd, under the leadership of Albert Chichery, a long-time member of the Liberation party. As preparations were made for the office’s opening, Chichery staffed the Commissariat with like-minded radicals in an effort to shift it to be more in line with the ideals of the revolution. The hasty decision to pass the RPAFS Act immediately created a political controversy resulting in the Commissariat's inevitable clash with the Deuxième Bureau.
The Deuxième Bureau was at the time France’s military intelligence agency, which largely had the support of Army General Jean Rouzet. The head of the bureau was the far-right Lieutenant-General Maxime Weygand, who had obstinately been withholding information on the French strategy against a potential invasion from the HRE since the President’s election in June. Although the Commissariat was tasked with investigating internal affairs and plots of foreign interference, Weygand argued that they had no right to access any of the data the Deuxième Bureau had on foreign spies in France and abroad, as the protection of French secrets was a military matter not a presidential one. After the passing of the act, military high command announced that it would not be sharing any of its information, further cementing the wedge between Charbonnier and the military. This conflict quickly made its way to Parliament, whose Liberation Party majority quickly overruled Weygand's protest, granting the Commissariat access to their data.
Weygand persisted in withholding his department's data, so when the Commissariat opened on July 2nd, it immediately opened a formal investigation against him. This investigation set the tone for the future actions of the Commissariat and its ultimate rise to power as an extra-judicial prosecutory institution. The office quickly compiled a report and submitted it to both Parliament and the press. Bonapartians, Liberals, Intellectuals, and other traitors to the revolution accused the Commissariat of foul play for coming to such a hasty conclusion, while many of the fiercest Liberationist supporters argued that the office was merely extremely efficient in their investigation in such a short time table. Although it is unknown to what extent the evidence in the Commissariat's conclusion was fabricated, they did establish a direct connection between Weygand and a number of officers in the HRE in correspondence that compromised the locations of several key military installations. This came as a shock to both Parliament and the people of France, bringing the whole of the military high command under intense scrutiny.
After the investigation concluded, President Charbonnier himself requested that Parliament expand the role of the Commissariat to be able to sentence as well as prosecute those found to be traitors to the French nation. Parliament obliged, and the Commissariat was granted the funding and power to staff its first “commissars,” who would act as police enforcers for the office. Chichery quickly appointed the first wave of these commissars and had them arrest Weygand in his home on July 6th. This first arrest was only the beginning of the reforms made by the Commissariat, as they sought to completely dissolve the Deuxième Bureau and fold what remained into themselves. They established the Office of Internal Security Affairs, which quickly began changing the standards for military loyalty. Loyalty to one's country was no longer sufficient; one must instead pledge their loyalty to the mission of the Communist International and the liberation of workers everywhere.
With the Office of Internal Security Affairs established, and additionally the arrest of Weygand, there was a frenzy in the French military. Army General Rouzet and the upper brass continued to resist, whereas those sympathetic to the Liberation Party’s cause were ecstatic to see the shaking up of military management, and came in droves to report sedition charges among officers and other staff with ties to the Opposition Party. It did not take long for the fervor of those loyal to the Commissariat to bring the upper brass to trial, as their own staff turned against them. In a notable event of heroism widely covered by the press, one of the most obstinate war cabinet members, General Robert Petiet, was dragged out of his office by his Aide-de-Camp Marie Courtemanche and other members of his staff, forcing him to submit himself to the Office of Internal Security Affairs. Marie Courtemanche already had celebrity status in France as the first woman to enter the military, but this act of heroism earned her the rank of Major, and inspired a large movement of women to take up arms in the rapidly reorganizing Republican Guard.
Treachery of Command
Although the establishment of the Office of Internal Security Affairs gave the Commissariat immense power to prosecute with impunity, the sheer number of sedition reports along with the general chaos that July would bring slowed the process significantly. Most of the Commissariat’s staff became occupied with the recent visit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and could not effectively continue the prosecution process. The Commissariat did however begin an extensive hiring process; recruiting the most loyal and committed party members to help process the sheer quantity of sedition requests.
After the Paris Massacre, efforts to reorganize the military were further slowed by the rapid mobilization that began in response to the declaration of war by the HRE. The status of the Office of Internal Security Affairs in the military chain of command was still not fully understood. Conflicting orders from officers and commissars made it difficult for the French military to organize. This problem was compounded by the general lack of military experience of many of the commissars, as the majority of them were bureaucrats recruited from outside the Republican Guard, or were new recruits. This general confusion and disorganization proved frustrating for the military, and was costly in the early days of the war.
The Bonapartian loyalists had not fully been prosecuted for sedition charges by the time the war started. The constant undermining of the general staff's authority, compounding with their general disdain of the revolution, led them to the decision to attempt to escape the country and free the royal family. On August 1st, a number of officers including three generals seized a train near Tours. While they took heavy casualties, this rebel Bonapartian cell managed to smuggle the Prince and Empress out of the country. The success of these rebels proved disastrous to those left in command of the French military, as the actions of this small group reflected a general suspicion back onto the rest of Rouzet’s general staff. Although the war had just begun, the actions of these rebel officers would lead to a bloody purge in the French command structure.
The Purge Begins in Force
With the treachery of the general staff made apparent, the Commissariat quickly began taking steps to begin the great purge of the military high command. Seeing that something must be done, Chichery asked the President to convince Parliament that an expansion of Commissariat power was needed if the military were to finally be rid of the traitors that plagued its upper ranks. After an emergency session of Parliament on August 15th, the office of the Commissariat was granted full judicial rights to prosecute as they saw fit. Once the decision was finalized, Chichery ordered a full restructuring of the military command structure from top to bottom. All members of the armed forces were to be evaluated by the Office of Internal Security Affairs, with the level of scrutiny increasing up the chain of command.
The reasons for the violent nature of the military purge are not fully understood by historians. It is true that the zeal of the revolutionaries and their desire to enact immediate change certainly gave them an ideological motivation to execute so many members of the military. Furthermore, the purge mirrors the senseless violence and executions that swept the streets of Paris during the election of the Liberation Party into office. Much like the disgruntled people of Paris lashing out at a government that could no longer support their political desires, the Commissariat’s purge was an act of violence in response to the struggles of the French military to defend itself in the early days of the war.
Although the military infighting between the Office of Internal Security Affairs and the Deuxième Bureau was certainly unhelpful for French mobilization, it was not the only reason for the heavy casualties in the first month of the Great War. The HRE was far more prepared for battle than French intelligence had suggested, and their hurried advance was shocking to even the most competent officers before the purge. Although it is true that the purge contributed greatly to the logistical delays of the Republican Guard, it is not unfair to say that the upper brass themselves were far more underprepared for the impending conflict than they should have been given the months of knowledge of Imperial mobilization. For example, the Germinal Initial Census and Military Readiness Report laid on the Army General’s desk since May, and despite the desperate orders from both President Charbonnier and his predecessor, the colonial forces on Germinal were underutilized in the first few months of the war.
What sets the Officer Purge apart from the previous acts of political violence perpetrated by the revolutionaries in France is the organized nature of the executions. Although it was staffed with some of the most radical members of the Liberation Party, the Office of Internal Security Affairs was at its core an office of bureaucratic pencil pushers. The efficiency and speed at which the purge proper took place was quite remarkable despite its grim nature. Once the Parliament decree was finalized on August 16th, the Commissariat immediately ordered the public execution of every member of the Deuxième Bureau and its immediate dissolution. What had started as an interdepartmental disagreement over jurisdiction had quickly set the tone for how the purge was to be handled, and what was in store for those who stood in the way of the Liberation Party.
These first executions of military members would have been sensational news in the press months ago, but by this point, the French censorship apparatus had already been put in place. The summary execution of every member of what was once a highly respected division of the military was looked at in the eyes of the French press as the just punishment for traitors of the New Republic. Army General Jean Rouzet himself was executed on August 23rd, in response to his ineffectiveness against the initial push by Prince Heinrich von Schwarzenberg, his sloppy handling of logistics leading to the Taxi Offensive (which he incessantly blamed on the chaos of the Revolution), and suspicions of potential ties to Ostend Company Chief-Director and Duke-in-Exile Heinrich von Arenberg. His execution was seen as a long time necessity, and the crowd in attendance was particularly riled.
Although the press continued to spin the Officer Purge in a positive light, the Commissariat earned itself a very bloody reputation. The guillotine had come back into fashion as the preferred method of execution. The Office of Internal Security Affairs deemed it “the most ethical way to execute traitors without wasting the precious munitions needed for the front lines.” One French soldier before they prepared to ship off to the frontlines in mid-August described it: “The use of the guillotine symbolizes France’s rebellious spirit dating back to its first revolution. It may be bloody, but the path to true freedom can only be obtained if the heads of the traitors roll.”
After the execution of the members of the Army General, a flurry of violence swept across the military. Commissars began executing those they deemed seditious on the battlefield at their discretion. No one was safe from suspicion, and it is no surprise that even the staunchest Bonapartians quickly began towing the party line in a desperate hope to be spared. One such Bonapartist evaded suspicion through their bravery in battle. Colonel Charles de Gaulle was a long-time public supporter of the Bonapartian regime, yet due to his decisive leadership at the Battle of Arlon, he was cleared of suspicion and instead became a national hero. With his loyalty now unquestioned, de Gaulle was swiftly promoted to Brigadier General, though his past as a former Bonapartian would continue to haunt him throughout his military career.
The overall effects of the Officer Purge were mixed. Although one could argue that the purge continued throughout the entirety of the war because the Office of Internal Security Affairs was never abolished, the executions died down significantly by mid-September. Overall somewhere between three and twelve thousand people were killed in the initial wave of the purge. The overall death toll of the purge remains unknown, as it is unclear how many died as a result of the purge, combat, or defection.
The Officer Purge also had a profound psychological effect on the French military. The air of suspicion and paranoia the purge created amongst the soldiers did a lot to keep those not as favorable to the ideals of the revolution in line. Although the initial month of the war was disastrous for the French, they did mount a strong counteroffensive, pushing the HRE out of France all the way to Frankfurt. In spite of the gruesome nature of the ordeal, the Officer Purge united the military under the banner of the revolution, allowing the Republican Guard to reorganize itself into a formidable opponent for their Imperial adversaries.
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